Friendship
by Eirian
Summary: implied AkiHika drabble. Resembles a story. Set in a spoilerfree future, Akira's girlfriend leaves him, & he goes to talk to Hikaru about it. That's... pretty much the whole fic.


Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go is written by Yumi Hotta, and drawn by Takeshi Obata, & I am neither of these people. But if I were Takeshi... I'd be drawing AkiHika BL in my sketchbook where Hotta-sama wouldn't see it. V

BTW, I'm crap at story names. So, yeah. Sorry 'bout that.

Pointless. Really pointless. I just wanted to write some implied AkiHika! I did sort of enjoy (in a perverse way) sidestepping through the entire story, implying but never coming out & saying anything. The Japanese are pretty good at that, y'know. They leave a lot of stuff implied. And Hikaru no Go is like that especially, at least it is to me... isn't it?

I've only read the translated manga. I don't know what happens after Game 54 "Tomorrow Is Anyone's Game" (which I read just before writing this, actually). I imagine the boys to be about 16 or so in this. But there are no spoilers (unless you haven't read ANY of the manga).

* * *

"I'm coming!" Hikaru Shindou yelled as he ran downstairs. He was alone at home, and had been playing a game of Go with Sai upstairs in his bedroom when someone had begun ringing the doorbell. He'd thought about ignoring them, but then realized since it was after dark, it was quite obvious that his light was on, signalling someone was indeed home. 

Huffing a little from the excertion of running, Hikaru reached the door and pulled it open. Who he saw surprised him. "Akira! What're you doin' here?" he asked his friend and rival.

Akira stared at him for a moment, before turning his head away to look off to the side. He turned back toward Hikaru, but stared down instead of meeting Hikaru's eyes. "I, I thought... I needed..." He looked upset for a brief moment, as if his words angered him. Or he didn't like the word he'd chosen. Finally he exhaled heavily, his shoulders sagging afterward. He finally met Hikaru's eyes, and the other boy saw misery in Akira's gaze.

Hesitantly, he asked, "Akira? What's happened."

Akira's gaze slid away again. He murmured, "It's Mai..."

Mai. Akira's girlfriend. Hikaru liked her well enough, but her knowledge of Go left something to be desired. She was a decent player, but not a dedicated one. Anyone who wasn't up to Sai or Akira's level just wasn't worth playing to Hikaru. So he was always a little reserved with his judgment of her. But Akira loved her, so Hikaru kept his mouth shut, not wanting to upset his friend.

"What's wrong? What happened? Is she alright?" Maybe she'd been in an accident, or found out she had an illness or something. Because something was /wrong/.

Akira shook his head. "Mai's... She... left."

For a moment, Hikaru didn't understand. "She left...? Oh..."

Akira nodded when he heard the soft exclamation. He looked at Hikaru and asked, "May I come in?"

Hikaru kicked himself for forgetting his manners, and motioned the black-haired youth inside. "Please. Sorry."

Akira toed off his shoes and slipped on the guest slippers. He followed Hikaru into the living room, settling down on the couch while Hikaru sat in the chair catty-corner to it.

"So..." Hikaru began reluctantly. "Was it... Is there someone else?"

Akira stared at Hikaru strangely for a moment. Hikaru felt like fidgeting under his intense, unreadable look, and wondered what it was about what he'd said that made Akira look at him like that.

Finally, Akira gave a bare, humorless smile, quickly suppressed as he glanced away. "Someone else... Yes. There, there's been someone else... for a while now, I think, I just didn't realize it."

Hikaru felt bad for his friend. Akira didn't deserve this. He wasn't sure what he thought Akira did deserve, but being cheated on by his long-time girlfriend definitely wasn't it. Hikaru pressed his lips together angrily. "Well, screw her. If she thinks there's any guy out there better than you, she's obviously delusional!"

It was said as one friend to another, to help cheer Akira up, but the look he gave Hikaru made the boy realize just what he'd said, and how it might sound. He was about to stammer out an explanation, when Akira shook his head. His next words made Hikaru freeze.

"I cheated on her."

Hikaru blinked a couple times in confusion. "Eh?" he finally said weakly.

Akira frowned and glanced away, shrugging uncomfortably. "I, I don't mean... there's not actually someone..." he sighed. "I love Mai, but... I haven't been fair to her. There... there's someone else, precious to me. And if I had to choose between the two... I wouldn't choose Mai. And she knew it. So she thought it best if we stopped seeing each other."

"Oh..." Hikaru breathed. His heart was beating rather quickly. He felt so bad for Akira. And yet... "Who... who is she?"

Akira stared at him for a long moment, before saying softly, "You..." He stared at Hikaru another long interval of time before quickly turning his head to the side, his face flushing pink. "You don't know her," he whispered finally. He shut his eyes lightly, but firmly. Hikaru recognized the determined look, and knew he'd get no more information out of Akira tonight. At least not right now. The conversation was over.

"So... Want to play a game of Go?" Go always made Hikaru feel better, and he didn't know what else might cheer up his friend and rival. Wanting to see Akira smile, he grinned mischievously and said, with as much arrogance as he could muster (which was quite a lot), "I might even let you beat me. I think I can play badly enough, but I'm not sure..."

After an anxious moment, Akira did smile, a genuine smile that reached his eyes. "Were you planning on playing half the game before me? It's the only way you could hope to beat me."

Hikaru glared, but couldn't hold in his smile altogether. "Whatever, Toya. We'll see who beats who, soon enough." He began to lead Akira through the house and up the stairs to his room. He'd only ascended the first few steps when Akira's soft voice stopped him. "Hikaru..."

Hikaru turned his upper body to look at Akira over his shoulder. Akira stood at the foot of the stairs, an earnest expression on his face. "You know, you're a good friend to me."

Hikaru blinked in confusion. "Akira...?"

Akira fingers fidgetted briefly together before he continued, "I just... don't want to lose our friendship. It means a lot to me." He stared at Hikaru, his expression willing Hikaru to understand...

Hikaru grew still and just looked at Akira for a long moment. Finally he smiled, soft and sincerely. "It means a lot to me, too, Akira. I'm not going anywhere." After a pause, he turned back and began going up the stairs again as if the moment hadn't happened. He glanced over his shoulder and called teasingly, "Hurry up, Toya, unless you're that scared of playing against the Great Shindou Hikaru!"

He'd reached the top of the staircase before he heard Akira following him. He heard Akira murmur, "I'm not sure I can fit into your room with both you and your enormous ego already in there."

Hikaru grinned. That was the Akira he knew and loved.

* * *

o.O I... have no idea where that ending came from. It wasn't exactly the way I wanted to end it, but... look! Ending! Ooh, you can see it from here, lookie! 

One-shots are good. Short one-shots are better. Ambiguous one-shots are... well, really they always leave me wanting more, but... (whines) it's finished! Can't that be enough?

Please tell me what you think! I've wanted to write a Hikaru no Go fic almost since I started reading it. & there has never been any other pairing in my head besides AkiHika. I mean, come ON! With the cute looks and the rival-thing goin' on, and the 'I'm gonna beat you's and... honestly, if they weren't 14, there'd be so much sexual tension between them. I wish I could draw boys... I'd do a BL doujin... (sigh)


End file.
